Crytek Ports CRYENGINE To Linux Support Ahead of Steam Machines Launch

probain was the first to submit news that Crytek has officially announced the port of their CRYENGINE game engine to Linux and will be demoing it at the Game Developers Conference next week. Quoting: "During presentations and hands-on demos at Crytek's GDC booth, attendees can see for the first time ever full native Linux support in the new CRYENGINE. The CRYENGINE all-in-one game engine is also updated with the innovative features used to recreate the stunning Roman Empire seen in Ryse – including the brand new Physically Based Shading render pipeline, which uses real-world physics simulation to create amazingly realistic lighting and materials in CRYENGINE games."

I think it's time we all said...

[jamlam]

Thanks Valve!

Linux sales figures

[DoofusOfDeath]

There's one issue with Linux game sales that I hope these publishers keep in mind. There are a lot of games that they're porting to Linux, where I already bought a copy of the game for Windows. If there had been a Linux version at the time, I would have bought that instead.

So I hope they don't get the wrong idea when I don't buy certain games. If in the future I know a game I want will be released on Linux within a reasonable time, I'll hold out.

Re:Linux sales figures

[houstonbofh]

The thing is that as a Linux sale you have no value. You would by the game without the port, so there is no value in porting the game for you. The people of value are the ones who will not by the game unless it has a Linux version. Hopefully, as Linux gaming becomes more viable, less people will be willing to run Windows just to play games. Publishers need to see a financial hit for not supporting Linux before they will spend serious money to do so.

Is gaming on Linux actually going to take off?

[realmolo]

It almost seems like it's finally going to happen. Amazing.

Now we just need to standardize on a desktop environment, and Linux will actually be a nice OS for the masses. /cue the "But choice is good!" crowd. Yeah, choice is good, but fragmentation is FAR worse than having no choices, when it comes to operating systems.

Re:Linux sales figures

[CastrTroy]

Wouldn't it be nice if you could go and download all the ported games that you originally bought for Windows? It would give them a good indication of which Windows purchasers really wanted to have a Linux version in the first place, but only bought the Windows version because a Linux version didn't exist. It would probably show quite a bit of goodwill towards the customers. New game sales should be this way as well. Purchase 1 version, run it on whichever platform is supported.

Re:Linux sales figures

[camperdave]

I agree with you, but buy the time you decide to by the ported game, they're already obsolete.

If you've never played it because it was unavailable on your platform, then it's not obsolete. It's brand new.

Only a Matter of Time Now

[The Cat]

Linux will be the premier gaming platform on the PC and on its own console, and Valve will be the company that made it happen.

This will have nothing but positive effects on the quality of games, the tools required to make those games, the educational possibilities for developers through shared source, and there will be spinoff effects for Android and OS X.

Tremendously exciting time to be a Linux developer. Glad we stuck with it.

Re:Linux sales figures

[NickFortune]

I think there's more value than an extra sale here.

Valve is offering game developers a single target in Steam OS.

Your're not wrong - but I think there's more to it than that, even.

Valve's concern is Microsoft's app store. They feel that MS are looking to lock down the platform, Apple style, and use the Ap store to charge a surcharge on any software installed, and to control what can and cannot be released. That impacts Valve both as a game developer, and as a distributor via Steam. I seem to recall they went on record to that effect not so long ago.

So Valve are throwing resources at turning Linux into a viable gaming platform. It's an investment in the future for them. And from the look of it, Crytek have come to more or less the same conclusion.

That's how I read it, anyway.

Re:Only a Matter of Time Now

[xororand]

A stable driver ABI would lead to more proprietary drivers and nobody wants that.
Proprietary drivers are usually only supported for a few years before the vendor drops them to increase the sales of new hardware.
In the meantime, almost all libre drivers in Linux enjoy support for decades, on a large number of system architectures.

Re:Only a Matter of Time Now

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you're missing the point *entirely*. If the ABI is stable, it's in fact much harder for vendors to drop a proprietary driver. They just continue working, and therefore the old videocards do.

OTOH, if Linux introduces a new ABI every 6 months, a vendor can simply support that new ABI for its current products. That keeps the blame for "dropping support" of old hardware fully on the Linux side. The vendor just gets to sell new hardware without recriminations.